This episode opens with Marissa arriving at Redemption Island, and she totally knows that Gervase is the reason why she was voted out. Candice thinks that it’s because she called out Brad, and he’s already running that tribe. She’s not wrong.
The next morning, everybody at Galang is getting along; they’ve got a back-rub conga thing going on, and it’s all basically good. Which means Colton must lose his mind, because there’s too much niceness and it must stop. Monica tells him that he needs to be patient. Tina, Aras and Gervase tell him to sit on his need to talk strategy until they lose at an immunity challenge. Are they already in an alliance with him, or do they just want to not talk to him about strategy because they don’t want to be in an alliance with him? Either way, I think Old Colton is about to rear his ugly head.
Back at Tadhana, Brad is taking charge some more, and taking credit for teaching everyone to fish (well, the guys, anyways, because the women don’t matter.) Which is something that Rachel hasn’t noticed, because she thinks that alliances are "just starting to form." Umm, no, they were fully formed three days ago, and you’re not in the right one, so good luck with that.
Ciera is not impressed that Rachel is trying to get on the good side of the guys; she thinks John and Rachel are in an alliance together. No, Ciera, Rachel can just do math and realizes that the women are outnumbered. I think Rachel also realizes that Brad (who is running things) is totally that guy to form an alliance simply because they’re all guys.
It’s time for the Redemption Island Challenge, and Jeff announces that it was Marissa who was voted out, while Brad tips his hat to either Gervase or Galang in general. Wow, I’m not even liking him a little any more; he’s kind of a jerk.
Speaking of kind of a jerk, Gervase is flat out told that he’s the reason Marissa got voted out, and is given the opportunity to switch places with her. He tells her to "handle her biz." Charming, isn’t he?
The Redemption Island Challenge is one of those balance-spooley things that only someone who’s watched "Survivor" before will know what I’m talking about. They need to feed the spools, using a long metal stick, through a course, and then balance it on the top. They need to stack 10 spools total. First two finished move on to the next part; the one who comes in last is done for this season.
Rupert and Candice take an early lead and are running neck and neck. They are working on their ninth spool when Rupert knocks almost his whole stack over. Candice hangs on and manages to finish first, and Marissa manages to stay ahead of Rupert to finish second.
And just like that, Rupert is done for this season, although I don’t trust that the producers won’t find some way to bring him back. I feel a little bad for him, because he did take a bullet for his wife, but I also know that I’m also only feeling sorry for him because I haven’t had to see him very much, so he hasn’t had a chance to irritate me.
Since Candice won, she gets to choose who she gives a clue to a hidden Immunity Idol to. Well, duh, she gives it to her husband, John.
Back at camp, John is super-proud of Candice, and also a little bit worried about how pissed-off and seemingly competent Marissa is. Then the men go for a walk and start to theorize who they could vote off based on which returning players would switch to save their loved ones. Too much thinking this early in the game.
Back at Galang, Colton is chafing under the happy happy fun times that are going on, so he’s going to singlehandedly ruin it. He goes around to everyone and starts spreading rumors. He thinks he can run this game, but I don’t think he’s as smooth as he thinks he is. He’s also not very good at keeping his cool, because when Kat talks to him about Tina saying he was over-strategizing, he pulls both of them over and loses it a bit. Then he involves the whole tribe and loses it some more.
Tyson calls it when he says that Colton came wanting to be someone else this time around in the game, and that he managed it for a day and a half. But now he’s back to over-thinking again, and he’s going to shoot himself in the foot by pissing off the wrong people.
The next morning, Colton’s wondering why the "vibe" in the camp is off. Well, Colton, it’s because you set out to ruin that vibe, and you succeeded. Aras calls him a bully and a gay Russell Hantz. Monica, Tina, Gervase, Tyson and Aras form an alliance, and agree to talk to each other first if Colton comes to them stirring anything up -- they know how he works.
Immunity Challenge time! And reward too, because they don’t have time for both with the whole Redemption Island thing going on. Reward is a whole bunch of fishing gear, including live bait. They have to roll somebody in a barrel, and then that person has to climb up on the barrel and retrieve balls, and then play what looks like Skeeball, except you need to get the balls to stick.
Galang is sitting Kat out, although I think she would have been great in the barrel. The race is pretty close, and Tadhana manages to get to the skeeball first. Gervase is actually really good at the whole Skeeball thing, and totally wins it for Galang. Surprisingly, when he’s got the right to gloat about the win, he doesn’t.
So now Tadhana is going back to Tribal Council. Brad calls Gervase stupid for some reason. Because he was better at the challenge than you? Whatever. Katie realizes that she might be on the chopping block. The men discuss voting Rachel out to try and get Tyson to switch places with her. John is trying to convince them not to go with Rachel, because then Tyson would be going against Candice in the Redemption Island challenges. Vytas notices, and it puts some doubt in his mind as to who John is really loyal to.
Ciera really doesn’t like the idea of letting Rachel vote for her, while they all vote for Rachel, so she goes to Katie. They decide that they’re going to vote for John so he’ll have to use the Idol to save himself instead of Rachel. Vytas also thinks that they should get rid of John now; they don’t think that he can be trusted, and they want to get rid of him before he finds the Immunity Idol.
Tribal Council time! Jeff immediately brings up the men/women division, totally stirring the pot as he does, and Hayden gives the worst deflection ever. He and Kat really are well-matched. And then Hayden totally gives away the plan to vote out someone with a strong loved one on the other tribe. Who else could that be but Rachel? Maybe he’s trying to deflect attention from the fact that they’re about to vote-out John, but I don’t think Hayden’s that smart.
And I’m right; Rachel goes to Redemption Island. But will Tyson switch places with her? I don’t think he will, but I’ve been wrong before.
Next week: Will Tyson switch? And will Colton actually leave the game, or is it just a hissy fit?